opening entry...

it was a bright blue, beautifully crisp morning in the desert. new years day morning, four hours of sleep and a hang over that would kill a sherman tank (do those still exist ? im showing my age now) what in the hell am i doing ? mark and steff told me to meet them at quail lake to do the ride we call hurricane loop. depending how you ride it , it can turn out to be about 45 miles with the road around sand hollow thrown in. this is the part i really love about living in the desert, how many of you across the country were able to do 45 miles on the road in nearly perfect conditions on new years day ? the desert lizards have it good in southern utah ! anyway, back to the mission at hand.. what the hell was i doing here ? i cant even see very straight and im going for a bike ride with friends that im not even sure will make it to the spot. see, new years eve in springdale ut, outside of zion national park was a party you must see some time. not only are you in one of the most beautiful spots on the entire planet, surrounded by road bikers, mountain bikers, rock climbers and eccentric old hippies that have made springdale their home, but there happens to be one freakin cop in the whole town, it was on and every one of the 4 or 500 in attendance knew it. when adrian finally picked me up and we made the drive to springdale, we arrived to a pleasantly rowdy crew at the "bit and spur" things had already spilled out into the street and the party was in full swing. now i would like to tell you about all the debauchery that took place, but who knows who will read this, right ? plus there is the fact that i dont remember all that happened as i was many sheets to the so called wind. again , what the hell am i doing here ? i never made it to my truck, i woke up in a strange bed and now its 1:30 pm new years day 09" and im waiting to ride my ibis silk over 40 miles, what am i doing here ? markus maximus arrileus and his new squeeze steff finally show, they look a little fresher than myself, but i have the magic bike parts and i control the show. well actually i blather something to the effect of, i believe my head will explode before we make it 10 miles, if i can get to that point i think i can make it. we all have known that feeling, ( no not the one where you cant get the feeling out of your head that you probably did some things last night that you will end up apologizing for over and over and over ) the feeling of getting on your bike feeling like shit but after even the first few pedal strokes all seems well, ok, maybe not well, certainly better though. for the vast amount of bike riders that have never had the pleasure of riding bikes in south western utah let me explain this one for you. getting started at quail lake gives you a taste of whats to come, no i dont mean difficulty, i mean visuals, there is one spot you can see zion, smith mesa, gooseberry mesa, and little creek mesa all in the same view, it really is breath taking. once you get started you go to the north and leave the lake area, turning left on the frontage road will take you towards kolob, thats when you get up close with pinevalley mountain, a small mountain range standing over 10,300 feet high, not an astronomical height but when compared to the elevation of 2800 feet in st george pinevalley towers over the surrounding terrain. so up the frontage road for a few miles and then the turn off to touquerville. this where you can really let it hang out, i've hit 50 mph on some of these downs, they're short downs but fun ones. this is where you come into laverkin, over the bridge and into hurricane, if the bike shop is open we will always stop in and say hi to dj and quintin, they operate the only shop in town, ( over the edge sports ) yeah the same over the edge as fruita co, some of you may know troy and the fruita scene, if not you are missing one of the truly stand up people in the industry, and one of the great riding spots in the country. through hurricane and around "sand hollow". this is where you get the best views of the mountains, and you can see the ending. once i got into the ride it was a no brainer, i know exactly why im here, i know exactly what im doing, this is what im about, this is why im on this planet, "to ride". so this is my first entry into my first blog, i hopefully will begin to get some exposure for my plans, more will be revealed later, but lets just say that im on a mission. so get out and ride if you can, if not get your asses to south western utah, its beautiful here, and its always time to ride. "here lizard lizard lizard"